


the innocence of children

by planetundersiege



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, AtLA, Bittersweet, Bonding, Childhood Friends, Developing Relationship, F/M, Fire Nation (Avatar), Fire Nation Propaganda, Gift Exchange, Growing Up Together, Hurt/Comfort, Katara got kidnapped as a child and grew up in the Fire Nation, Slice of Life, Wordcount: 1.000-3.000, Zutara
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-23
Updated: 2020-10-23
Packaged: 2021-03-08 18:41:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,848
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27161290
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/planetundersiege/pseuds/planetundersiege
Summary: Zuko remembered when the army returned to the Fire Nation after the last raid of the Southern Water tribe. He had only been a little boy, seven years old at the time and had been playing with his mother in the garden when the general had come with his soldiers, carrying a little water tribe girl in chains.[AU were Katara grew up in the Fire Nation]
Relationships: Katara/Zuko (Avatar)
Comments: 1
Kudos: 22
Collections: Fic In A Box





	the innocence of children

**Author's Note:**

  * For [firelord65](https://archiveofourown.org/users/firelord65/gifts).



Zuko remembered when the army returned to the Fire Nation after the last raid of the Southern Water tribe. He had only been a little boy, seven years old at the time and had been playing with his mother in the garden when the general had come with his soldiers, carrying a little water tribe girl in chains. She still wore her blue clothing that looked torn after the long journey. Her brown skin was covered in soot from living close to the engine of the warship, her long dark brown hair was messy, and her blue eyes looked empty. Like they had no hope. 

It had scared the young boy while also awakening a curious side to him, the girl couldn’t be more than five, around Azula’s age, and she seemed important. After all, why else would she have been taken to the royal palace? Especially since she was a child.

He had later found out that she was the last waterbender of the Southern Water Tribe. The original plan had not been to take any prisoners during the last raid, but to eliminate the threat on the spot, but when the general had figured out the age of her, he had decided to be a kind and noble war hero and spared her life, merely taking her as a prisoner and giving her a new change here in the brilliant Fire Nation. After all, she was a waterbender, and since she was still so young, she could be properly raised into knowing that the war was the way to show the Fire Nation’s greatness to the world. She could help and become a hero, showing the other nations that the war would bring everyone peace and unity under Fire Nation rule.

Zuko had thought it had been amazing, that the general had done such a noble deed and saved her from the barbaric ways and brainwashing of the water tribes. Now she could have a normal childhood and a  _ real _ and  _ happy _ chance at life that she wouldn’t have had otherwise.

He found out her name was Katara, and she had been assigned to work under the kitchen maids, one of them becoming her official caretaker and supervisor, making sure she wouldn’t do anything naughty while the evil water tribe thinking was still in her mind, before she got used to the truth.

After she was taken away, it took Zuko two whole months until he ran into her again, in a hallway in the palace. She almost looked like a completely different person. Her body was clean, she wore standard Fire Nation clothing for children of the commoners, and her hair had been neatly cut short and ended right above her shoulders. She didn’t look happy though, and that puzzled the young prince even more.

So, he went up to her and started to talk.

“Hey.” he said, raising his hand, but before he could say anything, he was sitting on the ground, the girl had pushed him.

“Go away, I don’t want to talk to you.”

If a servant had seen him being pushed, he was sure the girl would have been punished, and that was the last thing Zuko wanted, so he quickly stood up, wanting to talk to this mysterious girl and maybe even become her friend.”

“You look a bit sad, why?”

“I miss my mom, I haven’t seen her in so long.”

“But your mom works in the kitchen, didn’t you see her this morning.”

“Hina is not my mother, she just takes care of me. My mom and dad are back home with my brother, and I miss them and I wanna go back, but Hina says I can’t and that they were secretly evil. I know my mom can’t be evil, she’s the kindest. I miss my mom, I miss my dad, I miss my brother. I miss my long hair, I miss the cold and I miss eating seal jerky. I feel confused.”

He felt pity for the girl.

“It’s okay to be confused, you’re at a new place. And from what I learned from my tutor, the place you came from is really different, right?”

She nodded.

“Yeah, it is. There’s no snow here and there’s too many people.”

“I know you’ll get used to it, and I know you will learn to love it here soon. You’re lucky that you get a new chance, and there’s a lot of kids here to play with.”

“They don’t wanna come near me since I’m not a firebender.”

“Well, I’m a firebender and I wanna be your friend.” he said, giving her a smile. “Your name was Katt...arr...a, right?”

“ _ Katara _ . What’s your name?”

“I’m prince Zuko.”

  
  
  
  
  


Two years passed quickly, and before he knew it, Zuko was nine years old, and Katara was seven. She was working in the kitchen and was getting schooling with the other children of the palace staff when she wasn’t working. Zuko met her as much as he could, which sadly only was about once a week for a few hours. His own schedule as a prince was as hectic as hers as a servant in training, and now when his sister seemed to be a prodigy he was working even harder than before.

They were sitting out in the palace garden and watching the turtleducks while sharing some bread Katara had accidentally burnt in the kitchen and gotten scolded for. It would have been thrown out, unfit food for royalty, but Katara had taken it anyway as some food for herself, and then shared it with the prince.

Zuko didn’t mind at all that it was a bit burnt. He just liked that he could spend some time together, having really grown close to her over these two years. She still talked about her birth home from time to time, saying she missed some of the things, but she had gotten used to living in the Fire Nation. Even if she didn’t call Hina her mother, she acknowledged that she was her caretaker.

And after all the schooling, she had also begun to realize that the Fire Nation was the just nation of the war, and that the other nations just didn’t understand. It had been hard for her to realize that her family had been deceiving her, but Zuko had been there and supported her, telling her that it wasn’t her fault. She had been a little kid and hadn’t known better, but just because her birth family was on the bad side of the war didn’t mean they hated their kid. With Zuko’s help, she no longer was scared of walking around the palace.

He saw how she took another bite of her bread, and then used her free hand to touch the tip of her hair, newly trimmed. Every time it got longer than to her shoulders they trimmed it, a safety hazard Katara had been told by Hina. She often told Zuko about how she missed having long hair and having those beads in the front, it reminded her of her old home and her childhood.

He saw how she took another bite, and soon she was finished.

“I was hungry.” she told him. “The kitchen maids screamed at me a lot for not cooking the bread properly, but I have to use the ovens by myself. And I can’t firebend like them so I can’t really control the size and temperature of the flames and I hate it, they make the bread perfect every time but I just have to guess when it’s ready. I’m better at kneading the dough.”

“Well, I think you did great, especially since you can’t bend.” he said, giving her a smile before he bit into a really burnt part of his own bread. It tasted weird, but he made sure to not make a weird face when he chewed and swallowed, that would really displease his friend and make her sad.

“I can, just not fire.” she said, moving her hand. He saw that she focused on the pond and tried to close her fist just a bit, and moved it upwards. He stared in awe as he saw a tiny little ball of water the size of his hand emerged from the surface. She managed to lift it about two or three inches before it broke and fell apart. It looked amazing. “I can’t do much, but I’m trying. I hope I can help the Fire Nation one day with this, I read in a book some waterbenders can heal. Then I could be of use on the battlefield and help injured soldiers.”

  
“That’s honestly great!” Zuko said as he kept smiling, really impressed. “When I’m a general like my uncle I will have you in my battalion!”

“You’re gonna be a great general, he’s going to be a good next Fire Lord when your grandfather isn’t around anymore.”

“I know, and my cousin Lu Ten is also going to be a good leader. But did you hear the news yet? My uncle and Lu Ten are going to Ba Sing Se soon to conquer it and make it part of the Fire Nation! So many lives will be saved and see our greatness, and I’m so proud!”

“You should be! I hope it goes well for them, they will take the city in a matter of days or weeks.”

“Yeah, I believe so too. And I can’t wait until they return back home.”

Just as Katara was about to speak again, Zuko heard his mother calling for him, he had a fighting lesson and had to leave Katara. He gave her a long hug and told her that they would see each other again soon.

  
  
  
  
  


The news that Lu Ten had passed away and that his uncle had withdrawn from his 600 day siege of Ba Sing Se came like a shock to eleven year old Zuko. He had felt heartbroken and didn’t know what to do, his cousin was dead and wouldn’t be coming back. And the siege had failed.

He had felt so confused, but thankfully Katara had been there to calm him down and give him all the support he needed. He spent a lot of time with her, doing his best to not be close to Azula. His sister was always mean to him and creeped him out, something Katara didn’t do. Instead, he saw her as a true friend and one he could tell about everything.

She helped him a lot back then, and just when he felt like he was getting better, it had all just gotten worse. He and Azula had listened to their father and grandfather talking in secret, about Ozai saying that he would be a better suited candidate to take the throne. They had argued, and in the end Zuko had ran away, not wanting to hear anything. But Azula had told him that Azulon had ordered their father to kill him, so that he too would feel the sorrow of losing a firstborn son.

He had been terrified, shaking and crying. His mother had hugged him and comforted him, but in the morning she had vanished from the palace, and Azulon was dead. And in his will, Ozai was deemed the successor to the throne.

It had all happened so fast, he barely remembered anything of the coronation. But by the end of it, his father was the Fire Lord, and Zuko was his heir, the crown prince of the Fire Nation. One day, he would rule, and that terrified him. He had grown up being just a prince, nothing else.

That night he couldn’t sleep, his father hadn’t said a word to him and he missed his mother’s hugs and kisses as she tucked him in. It took him hours to sleep, and the little sleep he got was restless and filled with nightmares, making him wake up all sluggish with bags under his eyes. He was happy this was his day off from training and tutoring, and he was happy he managed to find Katara.

He didn’t want to go to the garden, so instead he took her to the east wing of the palace into his mother’s abandoned room, it was tradition for no one to touch or remove anything from a royal’s room until after the mourning period of three months had passed, there they could be alone.

He cried into her shoulder, told her everything he had witnessed, how scared and insecure he was. He missed his mother so much and wanted someone to talk to, and he told Katara that she was his best friend, the person he truly felt safe with.

“I know what it’s like to lose a mother.” she had told him. “I miss Kya, but I have my new mom here. Mom is really kind to me and has helped me adjust. I promise you’ll feel better soon, and I’m always here when you need me. You’re my best friend Zuko and I won’t let anything happen to you.”

  
  
  
  
  


It had hurt so much. The warm flames against his skin when his father had scarred him and brought him shame. When his eye was healed enough, he was to be exiled and to need return unless he had the avatar with him.

But right now, he could barely keep one thought in his head as he laid on a bed, eye closed shut as he wished for the pain to go away. His uncle was beside him, feeding him and trying to tend to him. He didn’t know how much time had passed, until he heard the sound of fast footsteps running over the wooden floor, and a familiar voice calling his name. Katara.

“Zuko!” she shouted at him. “Oh spirits, he actually did hurt you. But you’re only thirteen, this isn’t fair.”

“We know it isn’t Miss Katara,” his uncle said. “But it has happened and now prince Zuko needs to rest and heal, soon we have a long journey ahead of us.”

There was a moment of silence.

“Can I have some of the water? I need to try something that might help him.”

Zuko heard how someone moved the water bowl and felt how the bandages around his eye was gone. With his good eye, he saw how Katara put her hands in the bowl and as she took them up, the water followed, stuck to her palm. Then, he felt the cool liquid pressed against his skin, it burned and he let out a groan, but after a few seconds a feeling of relief washed through his face and spread all over his body as the water glowed. And when she removed the water, all the pain was gone.

“Miss Katara, did you just heal him?” his uncle asked.

“I think so, it was the first time I ever tried it. Zuko, how are you feeling?”

“I… actually feel good. Thank you.”

“I’m just glad I could help, seeing you like that hurt me. I’m sorry I couldn’t remove your scar though.”

“It’s fine. If it was gone when I was getting banished my father would see something wasn’t right.”

“When are you getting exiled?”

“In a week.”

“I’m coming with you, I’ll sneak on your ship.”

“But it’s basically a mission with no return, no one has seen the avatar in a hundred years.”

“I don’t care. I’m not getting separated from you, I’ll follow you to the end of the world if I need to. You’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me during these six years and I’ll never let you go.”

  
  
  
  
  


Three years had passed since Zuko was banished from the Fire Nation. He and Katara were standing on the edge of their ship, Katara’s now long hair was blowing in the chilly cold winds. It was way too cold for his liking, but Katara had a smile on her face and a happy look of familiarity on her face as they cruised through the South Pole.

“How are you feeling?” he asked her, before taking her hands in his own, feeling the warmth from it.

“Great. It’s bittersweet I suppose, I never thought I’d ever see the South Pole again. I keep thinking about all my happy childhood memories, when I was a little girl.”

He nodded, understanding that this must be an important experience for her.

“How are you feeling, about being so close to your birth family again?”

“I don’t know, to be honest. I haven’t seen Kya, Hakoda and Sokka for nine years. That was more than half my life ago. They were my birth family, but I don’t know if I’m really a part of that anymore. I’ve grown up in the Fire Nation after all, and they are different. I’ll just treasure the childhood memories I have of them and move on. Maybe one day when the Fire Nation controls the world we can meet again, but until then, my place is here with you. Together we will find the avatar.”


End file.
